Portuguese Cacadores for Moçambique

A while back I posted four test models I had painted to represent Portuguese Cacadores in Africa circa late 1860s to the mid 1890s. I’ve now added eight more to make a twelve figure unit. Surprisingly despite Portugal’s long history in Africa, and being a major player in the scramble for Africa in the late 19th century, information, in English at least, is really hard to come by on the Portuguese military forces in Africa. In the end I’ve had to rely heavily on Peter Abbots OOP Foundry book on Colonial African Armies. The internet doesn’t have much info either. If you type in “Cacadores” you get lots of information on the Peninsular War if you type in “Cacadores in Africa” you get lots of pictures of moustachioed, early 1970s Portuguese’s soldiers, with machine guns neither is much help to me.

A few things come up in Abbots’s book that I’ve tried to incorporate into this unit. First the Cacadores battalions in Africa recruited both local Africans, men of mixed race, Portuguese Goans and European Portuguese, and unlike most Europeans in Africa, mixed them all up in the same units. The Cacadores were issued with traditional Brown uniforms, but where also issued with a second white uniform, black leather equipment and kepis or white havelocks. Uniformity in the colonies was very variable though due to supply issues and so men could be wearing both colours of uniform as well as civilian and native clothing. It seems the further away you moved from the coast you went the more irregular the Cacadores looked.

Of course no one makes Portuguese soldiers for Africa (apart from Eureka’s massive three miniature range of 1890s soldiers) So I’ve had to improvise by finding suitable looking miniatures in other ranges like Foundry’s old west Mexicans and Darkest Africa, Copplestone Zanzibari Regulars, Perry Egyptians and Perry War of the Triple Alliance range. For conversions Perry ACW plastic heads and their black soldiers in Kepi head sprues are really helpful.